New York City goes cupcake crazy

Sunday

Aug 30, 2009 at 2:00 AMAug 30, 2009 at 8:26 AM

NEW YORK — This city is nuts for cupcakes. There are cupcake classes and cupcake tours, lines down the block at cupcake bakeries, a cupcake tea at a five-star hotel, and a cupcake truck with 6,000 followers on Twitter.

BETH J. HARPAZ

NEW YORK — This city is nuts for cupcakes. There are cupcake classes and cupcake tours, lines down the block at cupcake bakeries, a cupcake tea at a five-star hotel, and a cupcake truck with 6,000 followers on Twitter.

Some date the cupcake craze to a "Sex and the City" episode in which Sarah Jessica Parker bit into a pink-frosted cupcake outside Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street. Nine years later, tourists still flock to the place. Current owner Steve Abrams has opened two more Magnolia shops in the past year, with a third to open soon in Grand Central.

"I don't know how long it takes for a trend to end and become mainstream, but apparently we've established an industry," said Jennifer Appel, who was one of Magnolia's original owners and now owns Buttercup Bake Shop on Second Avenue near 51st Street.

"You'd think it would reach its peak but it hasn't — people are still into cupcakes, and I don't see it slowing down," said chef Melanie Underwood. Her cupcake classes at Manhattan's Institute of Culinary Education always sell out, with long waiting lists.

Not only is the cupcake's small-size portion appealing, but "it's almost like a comfort food for many people," Underwood said.

Underwood leads cupcake walking tours to various bakeries, and she's noticed that participants have sharply different opinions on which cupcakes are their favorites. "People have such different palates," she said.

Here are 11 places around Manhattan to get the cupcake of your dreams, including:

BabyCakes NYC: 248 Broome St., between Orchard and Ludlow streets, Lower East Side, www.babycakesnyc.com. When you order, be ready to answer: "Gluten-free or spelt?" BabyCakes cupcakes are vegan: dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, and most are sweetened with agave nectar. Customers with wheat allergies take the gluten-free ($3.95 each); the spelt are made from a high-protein grain often used as an alternative to regular wheat ($3.25).

Cupcake Cafe: 18 W. 18th St., and 545 Ninth Ave., between 40th and 41st streets, www.cupcakecafe-nyc.com. Open since 1988, Cupcake Cafe was a pioneer in Manhattan's cupcake craze, and its cupcakes remain the most beautiful of any in the city. The frosting on each cupcake is a tiny work of art, bearing colorful flower blossoms, intricately rendered in buttercream, a reflection of owner Ann Warren's background as a painter and visual artist. $2.50 or $3.50.

The cupcake truck's owner, Lev Ekster, graduated in May from New York Law School. Law firm jobs were hard to come by, but Ekster noticed that the bad economy hadn't hurt the long lines outside Magnolia and other cupcake shops. He decided to sell cupcakes.

"But it was hard to find a brick-and-mortar location," he said. "A truck was the most affordable way to go to get the business started."

Devotees follow Ekster on Twitter to find out where he'll be; flavors include Key lime and rocky road as well as classics like red velvet, $2.25 (minis, $1).

Kyotofu: 705 Ninth Ave., between 48th and 49th streets, www.kyotofu-nyc.com. Kyotofu's chocolate souffle cupcake contains miso and tofu, and the frosting is made from white bean paste. But this is a cupcake any dessert-lover can enjoy, so good it won New York Magazine's best cupcake award in 2007 — beating out more conventional cupcakes all over town.

Of course, this is not the place to go for your fix of super-sweet buttercream frosting and dense devil's food cake. But the cupcakes are light, delicious and flavorful. The green tea is as sublime as the chocolate souffle; $3.25 each.

Magnolia Bakery: 401 Bleecker St., Greenwich Village; 1240 Sixth Ave. at Rockefeller Center; and 200 Columbus Ave., near 69th, www.magnoliacupcakes.com. These are the city's most famous cupcakes, thanks to "Sex and the City."

"If you come to New York one day, and you have a list of things you want to do, we're on a lot of lists," said owner Steve Abrams, who bought Magnolia three years ago.

Abrams sells a few million cupcakes a year, "but we bake small batches all day long, and that's why there's a wonderful smell in our bakeries." Cupcakes are $2.50 or $3.

The Ritz-Carlton: 50 Central Park South, on 59th Street near Sixth Avenue; www.ritzcarlton.com. Maybe you can't afford to stay in the Ritz-Carlton hotel across from Central Park, but chances are you can afford to sample the hotel's luxurious ambiance in the form of its unique and delightful cupcake tea, at $25 per person plus tax and tip. No paper napkins here, just linen.